Your Cooking Oil and Your Cholesterol
Everyone knows how bad cholesterol can be from you, and many people also know that foods cooked in oil have a tendency to be higher in cholesterol. However, the type of oil that you use can also have a positive effect on your cholesterol levels.
One oil in particular, olive oil, seems to actually help with your bad cholesterol levels. This basically means that the more olive oil you eat, the better your body can get rid of the LDL cholesterol – the type of cholesterol that is responsible for clogging arteries and causing heart attacks. While it does this, olive oil also does not affect the amount of HDL cholesterol in your blood – the “good” cholesterol that can actually help to reduce the amount of plaque in the arteries around the heart by carrying the excess cholesterol to the liver where it can be eliminated.
If you have high levels of cholesterol, at least part of it can be blamed on the foods you eat and the cholesterol found in them (though other factors, such as your weight, genetics, and gender also play a role). One of the most common ways of cooking food is by sauteing the food in oil. By simply swapping out your regular cooking oil for olive oil, you can help prevent the LDL cholesterol from sticking to the walls of your arteries where it can become a problem.
Saturated fats tend to be higher in cholesterol. Most of the saturated fats that you eat come from animal products, like meat and dairy. However, many oils that people use on a daily basis also contain a high amount of fat. However, the main offenders are: coconut oil, hydrogenated oil, palm oil, and vegetable oil. However, some sources of oil can have a positive effect on your cholesterol, and when combined with other foods, may actually help you to lower your cholesterol.
Saturated fat is the bad fat that increases cholesterol, and monounsaturated fat is the fat that helps your body. Olive oil is high in monounsaturated fat. It also has antioxidants that can help you fight heart disease while you are lowering your cholesterol levels. The more often you use olive oil in your dishes, particularly in place of the oils that are high in saturated fats, the more monounsaturated fat that you have to fight LDL and increase HDL.
Besides being good for your cholesterol levels, olive oil is also good for digestion. It is good for the stomach and can help patients who are suffering from stomach ulcers. It also increases the production of bile so that the cholesterol you do eat can be digested right away and passed from the system.
If you are considering trying to control your cholesterol level through diet, talk to your doctor about the effectiveness of olive oil. He or she will also be able to give you other dietary tips that can cause you to live a longer and healthier life by reducing your LDL cholesterol levels.
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